Electric cars have upped the ante when it comes to being an environmentally friendly driver. But, some people have been reluctant to adopt the technology because of concern about recharging time. But, what if you could have an electric car with no recharge time? They are hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles.
Keith Malone, with the California Fuel Cell Partnership says one example is a Toyota Mirai. Malone says the technology is somewhat like an electric car, but there is no big bank of batteries, and no charging. So, you don’t have to wait hours for your vehicle to recharge. The fuel cells create electricity which power the electric motor. The car can go 300 miles on a tankful of hydrogen, which costs $50 to $60 dollars. And, they produce zero air pollution.
The sticker price on one of these new Toyotas, or a sporty new Honda called the “Clarity” is in the mid-$50,000 range. But, with government and dealer incentives, the price actually can end up in the mid 30’s. So, why aren’t these zero emission vehicles everywhere? Malone says there are currently only about two dozen hydrogen fueling stations available to the public in the state.
Up until this month, the closest hydrogen fueling stations for public use for the Central and South Coasts were in Los Angeles, Kern County, and San Jose. But now, there’s one in Santa Barbara. Brad Cole, with the California Energy Commission’s Hydrogen Unit, which helped fund a $2.2 million dollar hydrogen fueling station which just opened off of La Cumbre Road, across from the La Cumbre Shopping Center, says they’re hoping to open more than 20 new stations in the next few months, which would make using one of the new generation of vehicles more practical.
The station works like any self-serve, where you put in a card, and pump fuel. It takes about three minutes to fully fuel up one of the hydrogen vehicles. Tim Brown is COO of Truezero, a company which is using a combination of its money, government grants, and loans from automakers to build a chain of hydrogen fueling stations around the state. Brown says they believe this is the technology of the future, and his company has a number of the new fueling stations in the construction process.
Jean John of Santa Barbara is a believer in hydrogen vehicles. She just bought one of the new Toyotas, and says with a 300 mile range, she’s not worried about finding the next refueling station.
The Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District, and the Community Environmental Council organized a celebration for the new fueling station. The APCD’s Aeron Arlin Genet calls it another important step towards reducing vehicle generated pollution.
The technology has been in use for some time for buses and forklifts. But, boosters of the hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles hope a combination of stylish, yet affordable new vehicles, and the opening of dozens of new fueling stations around the state will push them from being a novelty, to a popular alternative to traditional gas power vehicles.
